Lifeboat Station Project

Jack Lowe's Lifeboat Station Project travels the country Photographing RNLI Lifeboat Stations and Crew using an old traditional Victorian Black and White photographic process.

The Lifeboat Station Project is Jack Lowe's mission to visually document all 237 RNLI Lifeboat Stations using traditional Victorian photographic methods. This project will create a lasting historical record of the Lifeboat Stations and raise support for the charitable funding of the Institute. The aim is to join the RNLI community together and help unite Stations from different corners of the country to support the project. The photographs will be taken using an old Victorian Ambrotype Wet Collodion Glass Plate photographic method from the 1800's. The project begun in January 2015 and Jack hopes to create a group of the glass plate images of over a thousand and eventually exhibit the entire collection at one of the large Museums or Galleries, including a Lifeboat central showpiece and of course his trusty converted ambulance called Neena.

Travelling in his converted mobile photographic studio and darkroom around the British and Irish varied coastline Jack documents Lifeboat Stations along his journey. His mobile darkroom is actually a converted ambulance emergency vehicle, which he uses to visit lifeboat stations where he artistically takes 3 photographs on 12x10 inch glass plates in the traditional Victorian way.

The selected trio of images usually include :

Stunning Boathouse Views

RNLI Station Coxswain or Senior Helmsman Portraits

Group Photo of all Crew (often including a Lifeboat)

Limited Edition prints from the Stations that Jack Lowe has already captured on film are available to purchase from the project's website. The proceeds of the sale of the photographs all go towards keeping Jack on the road and fund the continuation of his visits to RNLI Stations around the country. As the archive continues to grow Jack will be publishing volumes of books depicting his photos from around the country.